Sen. Jason Pizzo

Legislation to require police de-escalation training and adoption of rules to prohibit using choke holds and similar restraining techniques except in deadly force situations passed the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on March 16.

SB 1970, by committee Chair Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Miami, and Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, R-Doral, came from proposals submitted by 11th Circuit State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s Continuing Criminal Justice Reform Commission, a grassroots effort set up after last summer’s social unrest. (See story here.)